Lost Finale Gets Bigger

Okay, it's only by a half hour, but still, in a very unusual move, ABC is allowing the final episode of Lost to go thirty minutes past the usual end of primetime programming, bringing its run time to a full two and a half hours (with commercials).

The Hollywood Reporter broke the story, saying that when Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were editing the episode, they realized they had a lot of material on their hands – and ABC decided to let them expand the finale in order to accommodate it. Lindelof and Cuse announced that they'd finished editing the finale on Monday night, simultaneously tweeting, "We're done. Amen."

Sunday, May 23rd is the date of the Lost ABC finale, appropriately titled "The End", and the network will be wall-to-wall Lost that night, from 7:00pm on - beginning with a two-hour retrospective special, Lost: The Final Journey, with the finale itself beginning at 9:00. With the finale now ending at 11:30, the Jimmy Kimmel Live: Aloha to Lost special will now begin a half hour later, at 12:05am, after the pushed-back local news airs.

In addition, ABC is airing an "enhanced" version of the original two-hour LostPilot on Saturday, May 22nd, with pop-up trivia facts.